The Daily Update: European Club Cup
As usual, we list games we found interesting from the day's round of the European Club Cup (which you can download from TWIC):
Karjakin-Svidler was only a draw, but one with a great deal of complexity. It won't make for "light" replaying, but it might be a good challenge for the ambitious to analyze.
Krasenkow-Beliavsky was a lively win for the old(er) man, and it showed that one can play a QGD-type position for a win with Black, not only for a draw.
Smirin-Grischuk was quite entertaining, and reminded me one of my favorite games. It also demonstrated the power of centralization and its value for the attack. White's passed a- and b-pawns were no match for Black's assets. (Hmm, sounds like a couple of the Kramnik-Anand games.)
Most noteworthy was the game Ivanchuk-Carlsen, won by the Ukranian legend. Ivanchuk's win was most convincing, but he still trails Carlsen for third on the Live Top List. (Anand leads it right now, of course, with 2796.8, almost six points ahead of the man who isn't very interested in the world championship match. His loss.)
Next up, Aronian's win against Volokitin, a wild and woolly tactical affair won by the Armenian super-grandmaster, who is using part of his free time to offer brief comments on the Anand-Kramnik match for the ChessBase site. (While you're visiting there, check out Jose Diaz's cartoons. It has been a long time since he's done any chess-related work, which is a pity. His cartoons for Wijk aan Zee in 1999 were terrific.)
Sakaev-Gelfand was a fairly short but treacherous draw in the ultra-sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit, but knowing these two players it was undoubtedly of theoretical importance.
Moving on, I'd now normally report on the Crown Group of the Essent Tournament and the 16th NAFI in Chicago. The former was on a rest day, however, while the latter hasn't been updated the past two rounds. So that's it for this post, which already has enough to keep the readers busy until game 7 of the world championship.
Karjakin-Svidler was only a draw, but one with a great deal of complexity. It won't make for "light" replaying, but it might be a good challenge for the ambitious to analyze.
Krasenkow-Beliavsky was a lively win for the old(er) man, and it showed that one can play a QGD-type position for a win with Black, not only for a draw.
Smirin-Grischuk was quite entertaining, and reminded me one of my favorite games. It also demonstrated the power of centralization and its value for the attack. White's passed a- and b-pawns were no match for Black's assets. (Hmm, sounds like a couple of the Kramnik-Anand games.)
Most noteworthy was the game Ivanchuk-Carlsen, won by the Ukranian legend. Ivanchuk's win was most convincing, but he still trails Carlsen for third on the Live Top List. (Anand leads it right now, of course, with 2796.8, almost six points ahead of the man who isn't very interested in the world championship match. His loss.)
Next up, Aronian's win against Volokitin, a wild and woolly tactical affair won by the Armenian super-grandmaster, who is using part of his free time to offer brief comments on the Anand-Kramnik match for the ChessBase site. (While you're visiting there, check out Jose Diaz's cartoons. It has been a long time since he's done any chess-related work, which is a pity. His cartoons for Wijk aan Zee in 1999 were terrific.)
Sakaev-Gelfand was a fairly short but treacherous draw in the ultra-sharp Anti-Moscow Gambit, but knowing these two players it was undoubtedly of theoretical importance.
Moving on, I'd now normally report on the Crown Group of the Essent Tournament and the 16th NAFI in Chicago. The former was on a rest day, however, while the latter hasn't been updated the past two rounds. So that's it for this post, which already has enough to keep the readers busy until game 7 of the world championship.
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on
Wednesday October 22, 2008 at 11:36am